Mempad 2013 04 25

Membership and Master Point Administration Database (MEMPAD) Now Online(30-Jul-2013)

Following feedback from Mike Ash's "Your SBU" initiative, as he visited several clubs over the length & breadth of the country, it was rapidly confirmed that processing of membership and master point records in an integrated manner was one of the key areas in which SBU required to demonstrate improvement. The chosen supplier for this was Andy Gardner of R3Guard, an IT developer of some 25 years' experience. Although Andy is not a bridge player, Bill Richardson, our Membership Secretary and Janet Rixon, our Master Point Secretary have been working very closely with him to ensure that he is provided with all the user input he requires.

The scope of the project was divided into several phases, the first of which involves the amalgamation and alignment of all existing membership and master point data into an integrated relational database, constructed in such a way that it will support subsequent phases. The good news is that phase 1 is scheduled to go live in July 2013, in time for the processing of next season's membership records. The key immediate benefits from phase 1 will be as follows:

Members can update their personal contact details online, in a secure environment

Members can view their own real-time master point status and history

Club secretaries can view their own members' contact details

Club secretaries can update details of their office bearers, online

Club secretaries can log payment of their members' SBU subscriptions online, as soon as these have been paid

Club secretaries will be able to upload local master point awards from regular club tournaments online, provided they are scored on compatible scoring programmes

Club treasurers can reconcile SBU subscriptions their members have paid with those they have remitted to the SBU

Conveners, league secretaries, etc. will still be able to view players' membership and master point status, real-time, online but, due to the nature of the system, this data will increasingly become much more up-to-date

Subsequent phases of the development are planned to include the following benefits:

Online upload of master point awards from both national, congress and simultaneous tournaments (where computerised scoring programmes are employed)

Online upload of master point awards from league matches

District secretaries will be able to view up-to-date contact details for all the clubs in their own District, online

Online entry for national events

Automated payment of prize money from SBU events, including the ability for players to offset this against subsequent entry fees

Creation of an accounting interface

Ability to view master point records in mobile phone format

In addition, the new system will facilitate improved responsiveness of those SBU officials managing membership and master point records, allowing them to provide a much more efficient service to our membership. A large amount of data will be captured and logged but, while every effort will be made to ensure its accuracy from the outset, the ongoing success of the system is heavily dependent on all stakeholders (including individual members) maintaining and updating the accuracy of their data as time progresses - your support would be much appreciated as we take this giant leap into the 21st century!